The author was Project Officer of the Mosaic Project, 2001-2004.

Citation: This paper may be cited as: [Author.] 2005. [Article title.] In Ted Trzyna, ed., The Urban Imperative. California Institute of Public Affairs, Sacramento, California.

The Mosaic Project (2001-2004) was a groundbreaking pilot project led by two nongovernmental organizations, the Council for National Parks (CNP) and the Black Environment Network (BEN), to link ethnic communities with national parks in the United Kingdom. (Ed. Note: The project has been continued as the Mosaic Partnership, launched in January 2005; for updates, visit

http://www.mosaicpartnership.org.)

CNP (www.cnp.org.uk) is a national charity that works to protect and enhance the national parks of England and Wales, and areas that merit national park status, and promote understanding and quiet enjoyment of them for the benefit of all. It is an umbrella organization of 46 environmental and amenity groups.

BEN (www.ben-network.org.uk) works for full ethnic participation within the UK’s built and natural environment. It uses the word "black" symbolically, recognizing that black communities are the most visible of all ethnic communities. It works with both black and white ethnic communities. BEN holds that there is no such thing as a pure environmental project: A so-called "pure environmental project" is one which has rejected its social and cultural context. BEN therefore works to integrate social, cultural, and environmental concerns in the context of sustainable development. BEN believes that alongside fighting racism, there is an enormous untapped force for change that rests within people of goodwill who far outnumber racists. Alongside stimulating ethnic participation, it works to inspire and enable organizational personnel to gain skills to work effectively with ethnic groups, thereby creating a climate and a framework within which ethnic participation can take place.

Mosaic originated at a conference held in 1999 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Britain’s National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act. At that event, Judy Ling Wong, Director of BEN, said: "People cannot care about what they have not experienced. Neither will they have much interest in paying the taxes or providing the political support which is necessary to maintain viable national parks for the next fifty years." Her listeners went away asking themselves, "Why are we not engaging ethnic communities already?" It was from this idea that the Mosaic Project was conceived.

National parks in the UK have not always been equally accessible to all UK communities, especially to those living in cities. Mosaic aimed to create new opportunities for ethnic minority community groups, particularly those who have never been to the countryside, to take part in conservation, educational, and outdoor leisure activities, thus increasing their understanding and enjoyment of the national parks. It also aimed to create new ways for the groups to contribute to the care and protection of the parks.

CNP and BEN chose to target ethnic minorities because work to promote access by certain other excluded communities was already underway. It was felt that working with ethnic minorities required particular skills that were not being developed in the environmental sector, and that more resources needed to be devoted to it. One of two purposes of national parks stated in the 1949 act is promoting opportunities for public understanding and enjoyment of the parks’ special qualities, and there is now also a legal duty to promote racial equality. So these two important purposes were "joined up" in the project, the name "Mosaic" being chosen to reflect the idea of a mix of ethnic groups.

The first stage of the Mosaic Project was to work with groups already committed to BEN, and engage with national park authorities and other relevant countryside bodies, to prepare for ethnic community visits to the parks. This was done by establishing the social and cultural needs involved, the meaning and benefit of the forms of visits and activity programs formulated, and the contribution of different cultures to the vision of engagement with nature. The expertise of BEN was invaluable in providing awareness training for national park staff, and there were many practical issues needing discussion. Pilot visits reassured both sides that cultural barriers were not insuperable, and many people’s initial perceptions were transformed and dispelled through the reality of contact.

In the second stage, many visits to parks were made by groups with no previous experience of them. Groups that had already visited parks acted as ambassadors to spread the word in their wider communities about national park opportunities. Urban events were arranged in Birmingham and Cardiff to encourage inner-city leaders to learn from park and youth hostel staff what they might experience during a park visit. Several groups that had visited a park in stage one went there again, and this time were encouraged to make their own travel plans and their own arrangements with park staff, with Mosaic’s role a more supervisory and less direct one.

The third stage aimed to support national park bodies and ethnic minority groups in developing their own initiatives, and to produce a report promoting good practice. Several new kinds of interpretative materials were developed.

Good and thorough evaluation of the project was seen as essential, and is expected to bring significant benefits to many other organizations as well as CNP and BEN.

Before the Mosaic Project, there was no baseline information about ethnic participation in the UK’s national parks. With the cooperation of national park authorities, questionnaires were given to each group after its park visit so Mosaic could evaluate their experiences. Questions included: "What was the best thing?" "Would you visit this national park again?" "How would you like information provided?" and "Are you interested in working within the national park?"

Diaries and focus groups provided additional insight. In all focus groups, perceptions and expectations changed after visiting the parks. Sample comments:

• "It is so nice. I couldn’t imagine it." "It’s the best place I’ve been to." "The mountains and hills are really beautiful." "I heard about it, but I didn’t think it was going to be like this." (Bolton Asian Elders)
• "I think the Bengali community would really appreciate the sites because you would not expect to see them in England." "It is so peaceful, so different to [Newcastle]."
• "I just thought it was going to be a lake, but there is so much to do." (Newcastle Bangladeshi and Iranian Community)

However, there were some reservations about future visits. They tended to relate to food and traveling long distances. For newcomers, such basics are very significant. For example, some groups need particular foods for cultural or religious reasons.

Some comments:

• "This was the best thing. We were away from home but we could still have our own food." (Bolton Asian Elders)
• "There’s been no Chinese food." "[This has] been a major problem." "If anything will stop me coming back, it’s the food." (Chinese Elders)
• "But if you are trying to get Black people to go to these places then you have to know how they like the food prepared." (El Shaddai)

Many groups have adapted to inner-city life, and going beyond these areas is about going into the unknown, with all the challenges that come with it.

The Mosaic Project:

• Highlighted the need to open up opportunities for ethnic communities to enjoy national parks;
• Promoted what national parks have to offer to ethnic communities;
• Established links between ethnic communities and national parks;
• Provided training and support to national parks, giving them the knowledge and skills to work with ethnic communities;
• Enabled ethnic community groups from across England and Wales to visit national parks for the first time;
• Consulted and represented the views of ethnic communities;
• Developed a model for encouraging ethnic communities to visit national parks;
• Produced resource materials; and
• Laid down the basis for increasing involvement by ethnic communities in national parks.

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Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

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